UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt is leaving her job at the end of the month. On Monday, Jan. 14, Folt announced her plans to leave her position in Chapel Hill at the end of the academic year and to remove Silent Sam’s pedestal from campus. Then, Tuesday, Jan. 15, after the controversial Confederate statue’s...
UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt will leave her job at the end of the academic year, and Silent Sam’s pedestal is going with her, she announced to the UNC Board of Governors in an emergency closed session meeting Jan. 14. Folt cited security concerns as the primary reason for the decision to remove the...
More than 120 high-profile supporters of East Carolina University sent a letter Tuesday afternoon to UNC System President Margaret Spellings, Interim UNC President Dr. Bill Roper, the UNC Board of Governors, and ECU’s Board of Trustees, asking all to allow Chancellor Cecil Staton “to continue in his position without continued threats,” and calling for the...
[Please see editor’s note at the end of this story.] The leader of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors has abandoned his promise to cut all ties with East Carolina University. BOG Chairman Harry Smith has a controversial relationship with ECU, his alma mater and the third largest university in the UNC System. Tensions...
The saga of Silent Sam will continue into 2019. Last year ended with a modest truce. A group of faculty and teaching assistants pulled back a threat to withhold student grades if the Confederate monument were returned to its original site on McCorkle Place on the UNC Chapel Hill campus. But the UNC System’s Board...
The University of North Carolina System’s Board of Governors Chairman Harry Smith has recused himself from all communications with East Carolina University, his alma mater, and the third largest school in the system. Now, UNC System offices are refusing to release a personnel review of the school’s embattled Chancellor Cecil Staton — even though Staton...
East Carolina University Chancellor Cecil Staton has flatly denied any intent to resign early next year, contradicting sources Carolina Journal has cited. “I’m feeling today a little like I’m in the twilight zone. No, I have not accepted any kind of deal with anyone, and I certainly have not resigned as ECU’s chancellor, and that’s...
Editor’s Note, 3:15 p.m.: See update below. East Carolina University Chancellor Cecil Staton will leave his post Jan. 1 — just before University of North Carolina System President Margaret Spellings leaves Jan. 15 — Carolina Journal has confirmed from sources familiar with the situation in Greenville. Staton, in past months the object of criticism from...
The chairman of the University of North Carolina System’s Board of Governors says board members are still dealing with communication challenges and “high emotions,” but he didn’t offer details. The board is “tackling some issues that have plagued the system for a long time,” Harry Smith said during an Oct. 10 board meeting. The Greenville...
Rumors that East Carolina University Chancellor Cecil Staton could lose his job are false, despite documents showing tension between Staton and the UNC system’s Board of Governors, board leader Harry Smith told Carolina Journal. Times have changed for Staton since 2016, when the board unanimously elected him to lead ECU. Opinions of the former Georgia...
The relationship between the University of North Carolina’s president and Board of Governors is strong, not strained, the board’s leading member said after the withdrawal of UNC President Margaret Spellings’ nominee for the open chancellorship at Western Carolina University. The statement follows a July 12 board meeting in which members were scheduled to vote on...
